Question 5: Short-term Objective B

$291,635.00
Fiscal Year: 2010

5SB. Conduct one study to examine how self-directed community-based services and supports impact children, youth, and adults with ASD across the spectrum by 2014. IACC Recommended Budget: $6,000,000 over 3 years.

Progress: More work is needed in this area to achieve the goals set forth by the objective. While more than the number of studies called for have been supported, the area is underfunded (the projects have been small) and the projects do not examine all areas targeted in the objective.

Remaining gaps, needs and opportunities: Several of the funded projects relate to recreational activities, but more projects that focus on issues such as housing, employment, and quality of life (self-direction) are needed. Issues such as housing and employment may not be reflected in the portfolio data because the agencies and organizations included in the analysis may not have these topics as a primary focus, and many housing and employment-related efforts may not be specific to ASD. This area may benefit from a "practice to research" approach where already-operating programs can be evaluated for efficacy and this may help to develop more easily implementable services. Work is also needed to determine what outcome measures are informative and useful. Another issue is the scalability, as many vocational projects are very small and intensive and this is not an effective model for broad implementation. Potential funding mechanisms for these evaluations include the Dept. of Education Institute of Educational Science program for partnering researchers and educators and the NIMH Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) R25 program.